A California budget official revealed this week that taxpayers in the Democrat-run state are paying billions of dollars more on healthcare for illegal immigrants than previously known.

Guadalupe Manriquez, the California Department of Finance program budget manager, told the state Assembly Budget Committee Monday the state is "spending $9.5 billion total funds" to "cover undocumented individuals in Medi-Cal" in the current year.

Manriquez explained that this is a "revised number based on the governor’s budget-updated estimates," adding the earlier figure was from the earlier "budget act." 

CALIFORNIA FAMILIES CELEBRATE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S PROBE INTO STATE'S REFUSAL TO FOLLOW TRANS ATHLETE ORDER

"Of the $9.5 billion, $8.4 billion is general fund," she said.

Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio noted that the cost of healthcare for illegal immigrants could be enough to help solve some of the state’s budget woes and "avoid going into the rainy day fund," The Center Square reported. He said the number originally floated was roughly $6 billion. 

A new state law enacted at the start of 2024 ensures that "immigration status doesn't matter" for those looking to apply for taxpayer-backed insurance, according to the state's health department website. 

ICE ARRESTS HOMELESS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WHO ASKED TO BE DETAINED OR ELSE HE WOULD 'GO OUT AND COMMIT CRIMES'

California Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital in a statement that gutting the insurance availability for illegal immigrants would make a significant dent in the state’s deficit.

"California’s budget is $30 billion in the red, but instead of tightening its belt, Sacramento is doubling down on reckless spending," the Republican said. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

"The state is shelling out $9.5 billion on healthcare for illegal immigrants while emergency rooms overflow, hospitals teeter on the brink and working Californians struggle to see a doctor," he continued. "Rather than making responsible choices, leaders are raiding the rainy-day fund to keep the spending spree going. This isn’t just a budget crisis — it’s a complete failure of leadership."

Democratic Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo said during the hearing that healthcare costs are a major target of the new administration, which leads to uncertainty for the state.

"We know that today unelected Elon Musk and DOGE have taken their sights to Medicare and Medicaid, which is Medi-Cal here in California. And that is, you know, well over half of our budget," the lawmaker said.

The spending discussion comes at a time when the federal government is conducting a major crackdown on illegal immigration, including raids done by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and much stricter policies at the border itself.

Steve Hilton, founder of Golden Together and a Fox News contributor, said it's "yet another example of California Democrats' totally wrong priorities."

"Here's yet another example of California Democrats' totally wrong priorities. They have nearly doubled the state budget in the last ten years, yet over a third of Californians cannot meet their basic needs," Hilton said. 

"We have the highest poverty rate in America. We pay the highest taxes and get the worst results. People are asking, "Where did all our money go?" And here's the answer: ideological obsessions like this — free healthcare for people who are here illegally. People have had enough of all this. There's going to be change in California sooner than people think."

Pope Francis on Tuesday issued a major rebuke of the Trump administration’s plans for the mass deportations of migrants, stressing that the forceful removal of people simply for their immigration status deprives them of their inherent dignity and "will end badly."

Francis wrote a letter to U.S. bishops, in which he appeared to criticize Vice President JD Vance's religious argument in defense of the deportation policies.

U.S. border czar Tom Homan responded to the pope, saying that the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by walls and that Francis should leave immigration enforcement to him. Homan, a Catholic, also said Francis should focus on fixing the Catholic Church rather than U.S. immigration policies.

"He wants to attack us for securing our border. He's got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?" Homan told reporters. "So he's got a wall around that protects his people and himself, but we can't have a wall around the United States."

DOZENS OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS SUE TO STOP TRUMP ADMIN FROM ARRESTING MIGRANTS IN PLACES OF WORSHIP

As the first Latin American pope, Francis has long held the position of caring for immigrants, pointing to the biblical command to "welcome the stranger" in calling on countries to welcome, protect, promote and integrate people fleeing conflicts, poverty and climate disasters.

Francis and President Donald Trump have long butted heads over the issue of immigration, including prior to Trump's first term, when Francis said in 2016 that anyone who builds a wall to keep migrants out was "not a Christian."

In his letter, Francis acknowledged that governments have the right to defend their countries and keep their communities safe from criminals, but he added the deportation of people who fled their countries due to various difficult circumstances damages their dignity.

"That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," he wrote.

Pointing to the Book of Exodus in the Bible and Jesus Christ's experience, Francis emphasized the right of people to seek shelter and safety in other lands and said the Trump administration's deportation plan was a "major crisis."

Anyone educated in Christianity, he said, "cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality."

"What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," he continued.

POPE FRANCIS CALLS TRUMP'S DEPORTATION PLAN A 'DISGRACE'

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, thanked the pope for his letter.

"With you, we pray that the U.S. government keep its prior commitments to help those in desperate need," Broglio wrote. "Boldly I ask for your continued prayers so that we may find the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that more than 8,000 people had been arrested since Trump took office Jan. 20 as part of the president's plan to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, although hundreds of those arrested have since been released back into the U.S. Others have been deported, are being held in federal prisons or are being held at the Guantánamo Bay Cuba, detention camp.

Vance, a Catholic convert, has defended the administration's deportation plans by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as "ordo amoris," which he has said describes a hierarchy of care: prioritizing the family first, then the neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those from other regions.

However, Francis sought to fact-check Vance's understanding of the concept.

"Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups," Francis wrote in his letter. "The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."

As Homan referenced, the Vatican is a walled-in, 108-acre city-state inside Rome, and it recently increased sanctions for anyone who enters illegally. The law, approved in December, calls for people to face up to four years in prison and a fine of up to 25,000 euros, or $25,873, if they enter with "violence, threat or deception," including by evading security checkpoints.

The U.S. bishops conference had already released a statement condemning Trump’s immigration policies after his first executive orders.

Anyone "focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us," the statement said.

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago praised Francis' letter, telling Vatican Media that it showed the pope viewed "the protection and advocacy for the dignity of migrants as the preeminent urgency at this moment."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A coalition of 27 Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Trump administration action allowing federal immigration enforcement to make arrests in places of worship.

The federal lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, was brought on behalf of a range of religious groups, including the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists.

The lawsuit challenges an order by President Donald Trump that reversed a Biden administration policy barring agents from arresting illegal migrants in sensitive places like churches, schools and hospitals.

According to the lawsuit, Trump's new policy has sparked fear of raids, which has led to lower attendance at worship services and other church programs. Because of this impact on attendance, the lawsuit argues the policy infringes on the groups’ religious freedom, particularly their ability to minister to migrants, including those in the U.S. illegally.

'SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES': TED CRUZ DELIVERS STRONG WARNING TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FLEEING BORDER PATROL

"We have immigrants, refugees, people who are documented and undocumented," the Most Rev. Sean Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, told The Associated Press.

"We cannot worship freely if some of us are living in fear," he added. "By joining this lawsuit, we’re seeking the ability to gather and fully practice our faith, to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves."

A similar lawsuit was filed Jan. 27 by five Quaker congregations that was later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Sikh temple. That case is currently pending in U.S. District Court in Maryland.

The new lawsuit names the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration enforcement agencies as defendants.

"We are protecting our schools, places of worship, and Americans who attend, by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and take safe haven there because these criminals knew that under the previous Administration that law enforcement couldn’t go inside," DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement.

"DHS’s directive gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs," she said.

A memorandum filed Friday by the Department of Justice, opposing the argument in the Quaker lawsuit, could also apply to the new lawsuit.

The DOJ claims that the plaintiffs’ request to block the new immigration enforcement policy is based on speculation of hypothetical future harm, which the department says makes for insufficient grounds for the courts to side with the Quakers and issue an injunction.

In the memo, the DOJ said that immigration enforcement affecting places of worship had been allowed for decades and that the new policy announced last month stated that field agents should use "common sense" and "discretion" but could now carry out immigration enforcement operations in houses of worship without pre-approval from a supervisor.

One part of that memo may not apply to the new lawsuit, as it argued the Quakers and their fellow plaintiffs have no basis for seeking a nationwide injunction to protect all religious groups against the new policy.

NOEM, HEGSETH, BONDI PLEAD WITH CONGRESS FOR MORE BORDER FUNDING AMID LARGE-SCALE DEPORTATIONS

"Any relief in this case should be tailored solely to the named plaintiffs," the DOJ memo said, arguing that any injunction should not apply to other religious organizations.

The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit represent a significantly larger number of American worshipers, including more than 1 million followers of Reform Judaism, around 1.5 million Episcopalians, more than 1 million members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the estimated 1.5 million active members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, among others.

"The massive scale of the suit will be hard for them to ignore," lead counsel Kelsi Corkran, who is a lawyer with the Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, told The Associated Press.

Corkran said the plaintiffs joined the lawsuit "because their scripture, teaching, and traditions offer irrefutable unanimity on their religious obligation to embrace and serve the refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in their midst without regard to documentation or legal status."

Before Trump's change to federal policy, Corkran said immigration agents generally needed a judicial warrant or other special authorization to conduct operations in locations like places of worship, schools and hospitals.

"Now it’s go anywhere, any time," she said. "Now they have broad authority to swoop in — they’ve made it very clear they’ll get every undocumented person."

The lawsuit outlined how some of the plaintiffs' operations may be affected. Some, including the Union for Reform Judaism and the Mennonites, said many of their synagogues and churches host on-site foodbanks, meal programs, homeless shelters and other support services for illegal migrants who may now be fearful of participating.

One plaintiff, the Latino Christian National Network, described the fear among migrants in the wake of the new Trump administration policy.

"There is deep-seated fear and distrust of our government," the network’s president, Rev. Carlos Malavé, a pastor of two churches in Virginia, told The Associated Press. "People fear going to the store, they are avoiding going to church. ... The churches are increasingly doing online services because people fear for the well-being of their families."

One religious group that did not join the new lawsuit is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which leads the nation's largest denomination, although it has criticized Trump's mass deportation plan.

On Tuesday, Pope Francis criticized the administration's immigration policies, saying that the forceful removal of people because of their immigration status deprives them of their inherent dignity and that doing so, he argued, "will end badly."

Many conservative faith leaders and legal experts across the country, however, share no concerns about immigration enforcement targeting places of worship to arrest migrants.

"Places of worship are for worship and are not sanctuaries for illegal activity or for harboring people engaged in illegal activity," Mat Staver, founder of the conservative Christian legal organization Liberty Counsel, told The Associated Press.

"Fugitives or criminals are not immune from the law merely because they enter a place of worship," he said. "This is not a matter of religious freedom. There is no right to openly violate the law and disobey law enforcement."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

When the Biden administration launched its strategy to tackle "root causes" of migration at the southern border during a time of rapidly rising and historic illegal immigration, the now-frozen United States Agency for International Development (USAID) played a significant role.

During the Biden administration, Vice President Kamala Harris was tasked with leading diplomacy in Latin America to tackle the root causes, identified as issues like gang violence, climate change and poverty. It consisted of both government initiatives and funding from private organizations.

USAID, which was frozen in recent days over concerns about misspending, played a key role in the distribution of funds. While certain operations have been halted to get a full picture of USAID funding to the region, it is possible to get a glimpse of the help it provided.

JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP FROM PLACING 2,200 USAID WORKERS ON LEAVE 

In 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, USAID announced Centroamérica Local, a 5-year, $300 million initiative that funded organizations in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to address the root causes of migration to the U.S.

"Under this new initiative, Centroamérica Local, USAID intends to invest up to $300 million, subject to the availability of funds, toward engaging, strengthening, and funding local organizations to implement programs to advance sustainable and equitable economic growth, improve governance, fight corruption, protect human rights, improve citizen security, and combat sexual and gender-based violence," USAID said in a statement at the time.

"These programs are being carried out under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Root Causes Strategy and deliver on the Agency’s goal to foster greater engagement with local organizations and communities in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and advance stability in the region."

More was still to come.

TOP DEM STRATEGISTS WARN USAID FUNDING FIGHT IS A ‘TRAP’ FOR THE PARTY

In 2022, USAID announced programs in Central America to end gender-based violence, including a $6.5 million program in Guatemala and a $2.7 million program in Honduras. That built off a program announced in El Salvadaor.

In March last year, Harris met with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo and announced a planned investment of $135 million in USAID funding, alongside $170 million to aid development, economic health and security assistance.

Included in the announcement was an expansion of the Central American Service Corps, which was created in 2022 at the Summit of Americas. The expanded program was funded by USAID and aimed to reach 2,800 people seen at most risk of migrating by engaging them with volunteer work, employment and training.

Also announced for Guatemala was a USAID-implemented "Feed the Future" program to strengthen the capacity of research and education entities to scale agricultural technologies and to support research and education related to "climate smart" agriculture.

USAID was also to implement a new "Guatemala Biodiversity Conservation" program to promote the conservation of biodiversity and strengthen protected areas and other areas of ecological importance.

In September, USAID announced an additional $10.75 million in funding for Guatemala.

USAID STAFFERS STUNNED, ANGERED BY TRUMP ADMIN'S DOGE SHUTDOWN OF $40B AGENCY

That came after USAID invested over $153 million in Guatemala in 2023 to allegedly support the government in efforts to strengthen democracy and improve opportunities. According to a release, funded activities included "integrated rural and agricultural development, sustainable economic growth, support for the construction of climate-resilient infrastructure, and digital development and e-governance."

Harris was dogged by the "border czar" title throughout her unsuccessful presidential bid as she largely dropped the root causes emphasis and instead focused on the Biden administration’s efforts to secure the border.

President Donald Trump’s administration has demonstrated a skepticism of the root causes strategy, both in its leaning in on border security and interior enforcement and also its moves to cut or freeze funding abroad.

In his first week in office, Trump also rescinded Biden's 2021 executive order creating a "comprehensive regional framework to address the causes of migration, to manage migration throughout North and Central America and to provide safe and orderly processing of asylum seekers at the United States border."

He also revoked an executive order to rebuild and enhance programs to resettle refugees and plan for "the impact of climate change on migration."

Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, is joining GOP colleagues in the Senate by introducing legislation to protect unaccompanied migrant children from human traffickers.

"Over 300,000 unaccompanied migrant children effectively disappeared under the Biden administration, leaving them vulnerable to trafficking, abuse, and exploitation. Instead of ensuring their safety, these children are released with no follow-up, falling into the hands of cartels and criminals," Luttrell said in a release announcing the Stop Human Trafficking of Unaccompanied Migrant Children Act of 2024.

Luttrell's legislation is a companion to a bill introduced in the Senate by senators Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and aims to prevent further trafficking of migrant children by implementing proper vetting for adults who sponsor a child in the United States, including vetting for parents, immediate relatives and unrelated adults.

MIGRANT SEX TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR SPEAKS OUT: 'I SAW GOOD PEOPLE DIE'

The bill will also require that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) take steps to vet all adults who will live in the home of a migrant child.

"It is terrifying to think that over 300,000 young, innocent children have been brought into this nation, potentially forced into unsafe conditions and at risk for human trafficking," Scott said in the release. "As a parent or grandparent, it’s unimaginable to think what might happen to these children and that former President Joe Biden allowed this to happen by completely dismantling our immigration system and opening our southern border, completely ignoring the consequences or the tolls on human life."

JUDGE APPROVES EMERGENCY ORDER TO CLOSE MIGRANT GANG-INFESTED AURORA, COLORADO, APARTMENT COMPLEX

The bill aims to put multiple steps in place to prevent trafficking of children, including a prohibition on children being released to a sponsor who is in the U.S. illegally, unless the sponsor is the child's legal guardian or a relative. The bill will also require authorities to complete a home visit prior to a child being released to the sponsor and calls for at least five additional unannounced home visits during the child's first year in the country.

The legislation will also require reporting to Congress on actions being taken to account for current missing children, according to the release.

"HHS must implement thorough vetting to ensure these children are placed with responsible adults — not predators," Luttrell said. "President Biden’s border policies failed everyone, and this legislation will support the Trump administration’s efforts to course correct the disaster we were left with."

The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that "four employees are being fired today for circumventing leadership and unilaterally making the egregious payment for hotels for migrants in New York City."

The firings come after Elon Musk wrote on X Monday that "The DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants." 

"Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order," Musk added. "That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals!"  

"A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds," he added. 

HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM SAYS ‘GET RID OF FEMA THE WAY IT EXISTS TODAY’

During former President Biden's term, FEMA faced backlash after it was reported that while they lacked the necessary funds needed to help Hurricane Helene victims, they were dishing out money that ended up being used to aid illegal immigrants.  

Speaker Mike Johnson clarified that emergency relief funding is separate from FEMA funds allocated to immigration, but said that the agency should not have any part in funding the border crisis. 

FEMA partners with Customs and Border Control (CBP) and administers money to the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), a government-funded program that provides assistance and housing for illegal immigrants released into the U.S. 

A New York City Hall spokesperson confirmed to Fox News that the city had received funds "through the past week" that were allocated by the Biden administration for the purpose of housing and supporting illegal immigrants. 

Of the $59.3 million, $19 million was for direct hotel costs, while the balance funded other services such as food and security. According to NY City Hall, the funds were not part of a disaster relief grant. 

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO DISMISS CHARGES AGAINST NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday that the firings were 'long overdue."

"These funds have been misappropriated going back to the Biden administration and New York City – a sanctuary city – has been wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money to provide free housing, clothing, food, education and healthcare to illegal immigrants, including criminal aliens that are here illegally," he added.

"And so I applaud DHS for taking action to stop these payments under President Trump's leadership because we have incentivized cities like New York and states like New York – a sanctuary state – to allow this to continue and it has to stop," Lawler also said.

The Department of Homeland Security previously told Fox News Digital that those who made the payment will be "held accountable."

President Trump suggested in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that FEMA should be abolished.

"FEMA spent tens of millions of dollars in Democrat areas, disobeying orders, but left the people of North Carolina high and dry. It is now under review and investigation," he declared in the post. 

"THE BIDEN RUN FEMA HAS BEEN A DISASTER. FEMA SHOULD BE TERMINATED! IT HAS BEEN SLOW AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE. INDIVIDUAL STATES SHOULD HANDLE STORMS, ETC., AS THEY COME. BIG SAVINGS, FAR MORE EFFICIENT!!!" the president added.

Fox News’ Aubrie Spady and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report. 

Lawmakers in Democrat-run Maryland are considering a bill to roll back sanctuary policies and increase cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in certain scenarios.

Maryland’s Senate Bill 387, or the Protecting Marylanders From Violent Offenders Act of 2025, would require local law enforcement and correction officers to turn over illegal immigrants to ICE if the individual was convicted of a violent crime, terrorism, participation in a criminal street gang, or an aggravated felony such as trafficking drugs or firearms.

Republican Sen. William Folden, the bill’s author, told FOX45 Baltimore that the bill is "only for the most violent offenders."

"This isn’t about trying to turn any communities against each other," Folden said. "This is about keeping our communities safe from these repeat violent offenders that some jurisdictions keep putting back out into the community and that’s not safe for anyone."

SANCTUARY CITY MAYORS TO TESTIFY AT HOUSE OVERSIGHT AFTER AG BONDI CUTS THEM OFF FROM FEDERAL FUNDS

Critics of the bill, however, say the legislation threatens constitutional rights.

Sanctuary policies in Howard and Prince George's County currently prohibit local authorities from cooperating with ICE agents. 

Maryland’s attorney general has also issued guidance to local authorities on immigration detainers in a 2025 memorandum, stating detainers "are requests only; local officers are not obligated to honor them, and, in fact, risk violating constitutional rights by doing so."

The Maryland bill, which is currently under committee consideration in the state Senate, would take effect on Oct. 1, 2025, if enacted.

TRUMP DOJ SLAPS ILLINOIS, CHICAGO WITH LAWSUIT OVER SANCTUARY LAWS

Since taking office last month, President Donald Trump has conducted a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, with ICE officials making several criminal arrests over the last weeks in many left-leaning "sanctuary" cities, including Philadelphia, Boston, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

While leaders in some sanctuary cities have refused to cooperate with ICE as immigration raids continue, Trump border czar Tom Homan delivered a bold message to those cities: "We're going to keep coming" no matter what.

"They're not going to stop us," he said Sunday, stressing that criminal illegal immigrant gang members such as Tren de Aragua have "no safe haven" from the rule of law.

"We're going to find them. We're going to arrest them, and take them off the streets," Homan said, referring to the criminal gang members.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo and Taylor Penley contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: Two lawmakers in the House and Senate are introducing separate bills to slap limits on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) they believe are undermining U.S. immigration law – coming amid broader questions about funding of NGOs and a funding crackdown by the Trump administration.

Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas is reintroducing the "Protecting Federal Funds from Human Trafficking and Smuggling Act," while Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., is introducing the Fixing Exemptions for Networks Choosing to Enable Illegal Migration (Fence) Act.

Hagerty’s bill would end tax-exempt status for organizations that help illegal immigrants, requiring that exempt organizations do not engage in a pattern of providing assistance, benefits, services or other support to those who they know "to be unlawfully present in the United States."

TRUMP'S ICE LIMITS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASES AMID MOVES TO SHAKE OFF BIDEN ‘HANGOVER’ 

"Tax-exempt status is a privilege, not a right, and these organizations will be able to preserve their tax-exempt status simply by ceasing these activities," his office said in a release.

Gooden’s bill would prevent federal contracts and grants being awarded to NGOs unless they certified to the Office of Management and Budget that they are not involved in human trafficking or smuggling. It also would yank tax-exempt status from organizations who knowingly violate federal law.

The bill also requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a written strategy and best practices guide for non-profits to ensure they are in compliance with the law.

It also requires NGOs to go through a verification process to ensure illegal immigrants are not receiving benefits.

"For years, non-governmental organizations have exploited taxpayer dollars to facilitate illegal immigration under the guise of ‘humanitarian aid,’" Gooden said in a statement. "The exploitation of the American taxpayer will end under the Trump Administration. This bill ensures that not a single cent of hard-earned American tax dollars will fund organizations complicit in human trafficking and illegal border crossings."

TRUMP DOJ SLAPS ILLINOIS, CHICAGO WITH LAWSUIT OVER SANCTUARY LAWS 

It comes amid longstanding concern about the role of NGOs in assisting the government during the 2021-2024 migration crisis at the southern border, where millions of dollars went to NGOs that would receive migrants, assist them and potentially give them shelter and travel to their final destination. The funding is provided via contracts and grants from DHS, Health and Human Services and the State Department.

Gooden has introduced a number of pieces of legislation on the matter, and has been working for years to bring attention to the issue.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday that it has stopped funding nonprofits, saying they have been facilitating illegal immigration. It is part of a broad effort by the administration to ramp up border security and crack down on illegal immigration.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

"Many of these NGOs actually have infrastructure and operations set up in Mexico, on that side of the border, and are telling those illegal immigrants to come to them, and they will get them across the border," Noem said on Fox News Channel's "Will Cain Show." "So they're not just operating in the United States, they're operating outside the United States to help make it easier for those who want to break our laws."

Until an evaluation is completed, Noem said the department is "not spending another dime to help the destruction of this country."

Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order demanding a review of all federal funding going to NGOs. These two pieces of legislation would enshrine limits beyond this administration. Meanwhile, the administration has also frozen USAID as the agency's funding is being reviewed over concerns about how the funding is being used.

Fox News' Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
 

A federal court on Sunday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp as part of the president's efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S.

Lawyers for the trio said in a legal filing that the detainees "fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantánamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang."

In the filing, the lawyers asked a U.S. District Court in New Mexico for a temporary restraining order to block the administration from flying them to the U.S. military base. The lawyers noted that "the mere uncertainty the government has created surrounding the availability of legal process and counsel access is sufficient to authorize the modest injunction."

TRUMP DEPORTING CRIMINAL ALIENS TO GUANTANAMO BAY: MEET THE HARDENED TERRORISTS THEY'LL JOIN

Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales granted the temporary restraining order, according to attorney Jessica Vosburgh, who represents the three men.

"It's short term. This will get revisited and further fleshed out in the weeks to come," Vosburgh told The Associated Press.

The filing came as part of a lawsuit on behalf of the three men filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and Las Americas Immigrant Advisory Center.

FIRST 10 ‘HIGH THREAT’ ILLEGALS ARRIVE TO GUANTÁNAMO BAY ARE ALL TREN DE ARAGUA MEMBERS

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt separately said that flights carrying detained illegal immigrants had been sent to Guantánamo.

Immigrant rights groups sent a letter on Friday demanding access to people who are now being held at the U.S. naval station, arguing that the base should not be used as a "legal black hole." Guantánamo has been criticized around the world for its inhumane abuse and torture of detainees, including interrogation tactics.

The immigrants are being held in the Guantánamo detention camp that was set up for detainees in the aftermath of 9/11. The immigrants are separated from the 15 detainees who were already there, including planners in the 2001 terrorist attack.

Trump has promised to expand the detention camp to hold up to 30,000 "criminal illegal aliens."

Leavitt said Wednesday that more than 8,000 immigrants have been arrested since Jan. 20 as part of Trump's plan to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, although hundreds of those arrested have since been released back into the U.S.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump’s promised border crackdown appears to be influencing groups of migrants looking to enter the United States illegally.

Internal Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) memos obtained by Fox News indicate that two groups of migrants recently ended their journeys to the U.S. and turned around to return to their home countries.

On Wednesday, Feb. 5, Honduran officers encountered a group of 23 migrants previously headed for the United States. The individuals hailed from Honduras, Venezuela, Panama and El Salvador.

FRUSTRATED CHICAGOANS BACK ICE DEPORTATIONS, APPLAUD DOJ LAWSUIT TARGETING SANCTUARY POLICIES

According to the CBP memo, upon interviewing the migrants, officials learned that they had entered Mexico through the country’s border with Guatemala. However, they decided to turn around after "learning about the multi-agency force security on the Southwest Border in social media and through family members in the United States."

In its memo, CBP also noted that the migrants surrendered to Mexican authorities before being sent back to Guatemala where they boarded buses headed to Honduras.

CBP detailed a Feb. 3 incident in another internal memo obtained by Fox News in which the Honduran authorities encountered a group of 26 migrants. These migrants were also headed for the U.S., but turned around when they learned about the increased security and opted instead to return to their countries of origin.

TIDAL WAVE OF BORDER SECURITY BILLS HIT HOUSE AS REPUBLICANS MOVE FAST ON DC TAKEOVER

The migrants in this group were apparently from Venezuela and Cuba. They were initially turned away by Nicaraguan immigration officials and sent back to Honduras, but after a discussion between the two nations, they were allowed to cross into Nicaragua as they made their way back home.

President Donald Trump focused much of his 2024 campaign on illegal immigration, vowing to take a completely different approach from former President Joe Biden. While campaigning for his second term, Trump often appeared with families who lost loved ones to illegal immigrant crime or fentanyl.

Following November’s election, there were reports of illegal immigrants leaving the U.S. or choosing to "self-deport" prior to Trump’s return to D.C. out of fears of his potential policies.

The first piece of legislation that President Trump signed in his second term was the Laken Riley Act, named for a nursing student who was killed during a jog on the University of Georgia’s campus by an illegal immigrant. Jose Ibarra, who previously had been arrested but never detained by ICE, received a life prison sentence for killing 22-year-old Laken Riley.

President Trump is also taking a novel approach to detaining illegal immigrants. Under President Trump’s order on "Expanding Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Full Capacity," illegal immigrants will be housed with the 15 last detainees remaining in the infamous facility.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who joined an immigration raid last month in New York City, confirmed that a second flight of illegal immigrants left for Gitmo ahead of her visit.

Noem previously said that only "the worst of the worst" of illegal immigrants would be sent to the facility in Cuba, which could eventually be home to up to 30,000 migrants.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up his first overseas trip across Latin America with several wins on immigration, a top priority for President Donald Trump.

America’s new top diplomat returns home with a binder full of agreements from foreign governments on day-one priorities to interdict human and drug trafficking – a testament to how the Trump administration wields America’s economic might. 

"I think the fact that his first trip was to Latin America, I think was a huge statement in itself," said Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS).

Next, Rubio will head to the Middle East, with plans to visit Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in mid-February after attending the Munich Security Conference. A broad swath of even more challenging circumstances await him there, including concerns from foreign officials over Trump’s newfangled idea to "take over" the Gaza Strip, with neighboring Arab states staunchly opposed to U.S. insistence that they take in Palestinians. 

RUBIO TO VISIT MIDDLE EAST FOR SECOND TRIP AS SECRETARY OF STATE AFTER TRUMP SUGGESTS US TAKEOVER OF GAZA

Before the secretary took off for Latin America, the Trump administration had already scored several victories. Colombia did a lightning fast about-face on accepting deportation flights carrying illegal immigrants headed home from the United States. President Gustavo Petro had initially denied two flights carrying Colombian nationals, saying he would not accept the return of migrants who were not treated with "dignity and respect" and who had arrived shackled or on military planes. 

But Trump immediately threatened 25% tariffs on Colombian goods, and Petro acquiesced to all U.S. conditions, according to the White House, including accepting migrants on military planes. 

Rubio then began his regional tour in Panama last Saturday, a nation that nervously awaited to see what his visit would hold after Trump repeatedly called for a U.S. takeover of the Panama Canal. 

Trump had claimed the canal was essentially under the control of China – Hong Kong-based firms control the ports of entry – and charging America unfair rates after the U.S. built the canal and gave it back to Panama in a 1977 treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter. 

After Rubio’s visit, Panama said it would not be renewing its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with China, an investment project the CCP uses to secure influence in developing nations across the world. 

"The BRI thing was huge news," said Humire. 

"There are 22 countries in Latin America that signed a BRI agreement. If we really push hard on this, a lot of countries, especially the ones that are allied with us, are going to rethink" their agreements with China, he added. 

RUBIO HEADS TO PANAMA, LATIN AMERICA TO PURSUE TRUMP'S 'GOLDEN AGE' AGENDA

Rubio had warned Panama that if its government did not move to reduce or eliminate the CCP’s grip on the canal, the U.S. would move to do so.

Under the canal treaties, the U.S. retains the duty to defend the canal if it comes under threat. 

But Rubio hit a snag over a claim that the State Department made that Panama had offered free passage through the canal for U.S naval vessels.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino then accused the US of spreading "lies and falsehoods" about his nation offering the U.S. free passage. 

The secretary then rowed back the claim, while calling the charges "absurd." 

"It seems absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict," Rubio said.  "Panama has a process of laws and procedures that they need to follow as it relates to the Panamanian port."

In Costa Rica, Rubio offered U.S. help to combat a wave of drug trafficking crime and push back on Chinese influence by limiting CCP development of 5G technology in the country. 

Then, in El Salvador, Rubio cinched an offer from Trump-friendly President Nayib Bukele to accept deportees of any nationality, including American criminals. 

EL SALVADOR AGREES TO ACCEPT US DEPORTEES OF ANY NATIONALITY FOLLOWING MEETING WITH RUBIO

At the same time, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to send 10,000 Mexican forces to the U.S. border after Trump agreed to delay a threatened 25% tariff on her nation’s exports to the U.S.

Meanwhile, in Guatemala, President Bernardo Arévalo pledged to accept 40% more deportation flights and to accept people of other nationalities. 

"I think a lot of the wins are because of his prior relationships with the region, his team and, frankly, his experience and his knowledge," said Humire. "He’s somebody that can engage them in their language and in their kind of mannerisms."

And, he added, Latin America saw "how serious" Trump was about deportations, watching the threats the president made to Canada, Mexico and Colombia.

"I think we could have gotten more clarity from Panama on the canal," said Humire. "But I think we met little resistance [overall]."

Rubio wasn’t the only Trump official to secure Latin America wins. Special envoy Ric Grenell sat down with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this week and returned home with six American hostages. The price paid, according to Grenell, was giving the Venezuelan dictator a photo opportunity with an American diplomat for propaganda purposes. 

The Trump administration now expects deportation flights to Venezuela to resume "within 30 days," border czar Tom Homan told the New York Times, after Maduro previously refused to accept Venezuelan nationals back from the U.S. 

"He's on a good-behavior policy," said Humire.  "[Maduro] thinks – they call it agenda zero – they think that they can renew, kind of restart relations with the U.S. by basically being on good behavior, starting to steer us towards their interests."

"Grennell has to be able to get the things that we need without giving a whole lot. And I think he accomplished that," Humire continued. "The photo op, they’re going to spin it, use it for disinformation. But that’s a small concession for bringing hostages home."

The Trump administration is using federal prisons to house illegal immigrants as part of an expansive deportation operation, Fox News Digital confirmed on Friday.

In a statement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said it is helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "by housing detainees and will continue to support our law enforcement partners to fulfill the administration's policy objectives."

The bureau said that for privacy, safety and security reasons, it does not comment on the legal status of any individual, "nor do we specify the legal status of individuals assigned to any particular facility, including numbers and locations."

TRUMP'S ICE LIMITS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASES AMID MOVES TO SHAKE OFF BIDEN ‘HANGOVER' 

The Associated Press reported that facilities in Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta are being used for detention.

The move comes as ICE has been over capacity as it has quickly ramped up the number of illegal immigrants being arrested in raids in sanctuary cities and elsewhere across the country.

ICE currently has just under 42,000 beds available to it, and it has been exceeding capacity under the current administration. The administration has been pushing hard to get more beds and detention space, but sources tell Fox that it typically takes around 30 days for contractors to deliver, given the time it takes to identify buildings, hire people, conduct background checks and comply with related requirements. That help is expected soon.

Fox News Digital reported on Thursday that ICE has requested an apportionment of around $575 million from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as an advance of its funding for the year in order to be able to work more quickly and get another step closer to a reported target of 100,000 beds and one million removals per year. 

TRUMP DOJ SLAPS ILLINOIS, CHICAGO WITH LAWSUIT OVER SANCTUARY LAWS 

Fox also reported that ICE is working with the BOP to identify space to house illegal immigrants, as well as Customs and Border Protection (CBP), where there may be unused space in soft-sided facilities. Fox News Digital was also told that, as of this week, officials are being instructed that any release of an illegal immigrant in ICE custody must be personally signed off on by acting ICE director Caleb Vitello. 

Meanwhile, the administration is using Guantánamo Bay to house up to 30,000 detainees, with the second flight of migrants leaving for the facility on Thursday.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

 "We are looking well outside the box," a senior ICE official told Fox News Digital.

"The Biden administration cut down so many of our beds, and they canceled so many contracts. And the problem with that is you can't just immediately turn those back on. It's not a switch, it's a dial," they said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently apprehended an illegal immigrant in Texas, who was wanted for murder in Guatemala.

Dennis Alexander Valenzuela, 37, was arrested on Jan. 31 at his home in Fort Worth, Texas, according to a statement from ICE.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SEXUALLY ABUSED CHILD IN THE US AFTER BEING REMOVED FROM THE COUNTRY FIVE TIMES 

"Our officers pursue criminal aliens who attempt to hide in the shadows of our communities daily," said acting ICE Dallas field office director Joshua Johnson. "The apprehension and pending removal of this individual underscores our dedication to upholding the laws of our country and safeguarding our communities."

Valenzuela, who is from Guatemala, entered the United States at or near Hidalgo, Texas on June 16, 2021, without an immigration inspection, admission, or parole by an immigration officer, according to ICE.

US MILITARY FLYING SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAFT FOR RECONNAISSANCE MISSIONS ALONG SOUTHERN BORDER WITH MEXICO 

U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered Valenzuela on the same day and served him a Notice to Appear, pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act, officials noted.

Valenzuela will be housed at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, pending removal proceedings, according to the statement.

The U.S. Coast Guard apprehended a Chinese migrant floating on a paddleboard off the Bahamas, officials said.

The man was spotted about 25 miles off Freeport, Bahamas by the Cutter Seahorse, officials said in a social media post Wednesday. 

Photos and video released by the U.S. Coast Guard showed the man paddling on what appeared to be two boards on top of each other, with a few pieces of luggage strapped to them.

The unidentified Chinese national was transported back to the Bahamas, the agency said.

DOZENS OF ILLEGALS ARRESTED IN TRUMP'S HOME COUNTY IN FLORIDA

The apprehension came just a week after 26 people from China landed in Coral Gables, Florida in what authorities said was a migrant smuggling operation launched from the Bahamas

"We believe they came by boat, they came through a secluded area in the southern end of Coral Gables," Coral Gables Police Chief Hudak Jr. said in a press release. "They're coming up through a canal area that leads to a private marina."

TOM HOMAN CALLS DESIGNATING CARTELS AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS A 'GAME CHANGER'

Two alleged smugglers, along with 26 Chinese migrants – nine women and 17 men – were taken into custody, Hudak Jr. said.

The alleged smugglers were of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent and were carrying a firearm, police said.

Illegal immigrants from China have increased in number dramatically over the past several years, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Between the fiscal years of 2021 and 2024, they accounted for an increase of more than 8,000%. 

The spike comes as U.S. lawmakers are warning China's influence in South and Central America and its rising tech industry pose national security threats. 

WATCH:

President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan has vowed to tackle illegal immigration from "day one."

Trump recently signed an executive action suspending asylum for those crossing through the southern border. 

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security expanded its use of "expedited removal," a process that allows U.S. Customs and Border officials to deport individuals without an immigration court hearing or other appearance before a judge.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast for comment.

Fox News Digital's Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

After drone video footage surfaced of an apparent cartel-on-cartel gunfight just south of the U.S. border with Mexico, Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas is calling attention to the danger still present at the border.

The footage, which Roy obtained from sources on the border, was taken by a cartel drone and shows two sets of vehicles exchanging gunfire near the U.S. border. Video taken by the drone shows the operator eventually drop some type of missile, seeming to eliminate shooters on one side.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Roy said that the knowledge that cartels own drones with weapon capabilities "open[s] up a whole other frontier that we've got to manage and deal with border security."

"Seeing that and adding it into what we know about the extent to which the cartels are heavily armed and have significant resources… it is indicative of the kind of danger that we're talking about," said Roy.

MEXICAN CARTELS TARGETING BORDER PATROL AGENTS WITH KAMIKAZE DRONES, EXPLOSIVES AMID TRUMP CRACKDOWN: REPORT

This comes just days after U.S. Border Patrol agents exchanged gunfire with suspected cartel members near the U.S.-Mexican border in Fronton, Texas.

"We're seeing more of that," said Roy.

He noted that as President Donald Trump and his administration take major steps to crack down on illegal immigration and migrant crime within the U.S., he "would expect the cartels to flex more muscle in Mexico," requiring the U.S. to work more closely with Mexican authorities to quash any increase in violence.

"They recognize now that they've got a United States of America that is serious," he said. "My guess is they're not stupid enough to have the kind of overt aggression across our border… I’d speculate that they're going to try to manipulate a great deal of the police and military forces in Mexico."

HEGSETH, HOMAN TOUR BORDER AS MILITARY HELPS WITH DEPORTATION FLIGHTS, OPS AGAINST CARTELS

In response, Roy said he expects Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will move to "work in good faith with Mexico to strengthen their ability to have the rule of law and root out cartels."

The congressman, who has introduced legislation to designate cartels "foreign terrorist organizations," said that Trump’s executive order to do the same is an important step to rooting out the cartel problem both in the U.S. and Mexico.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

"This administration has already had more presence at the border than the entirety of the four years of the Biden administration… The cartels now know that you have a president in the country that means business, and they’re probably trying to figure out what their positioning needs to be."

ICE ARRESTS UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP CONTINUE IN MIGRANT ‘SANCTUARY’ CITIES

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) declined to comment on the drone footage. 

A CBP spokesperson told Fox News Digital that "threats and assaults against CBP personnel are taken very seriously." 

"We remain vigilant and stand ready to ensure the safety of our personnel, aliens, and local communities, and the security of our borders," said the spokesperson. 

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo confirmed that his country is willing to accept migrants of other nationalities being deported from the U.S. under President Donald Trump's administration.

Arevalo made the announcement during a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday. The new agreement declares Guatemala a "safe third country" for deportation, with the U.S. paying for migrants to be eventually returned to their home countries.

"We have agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights of deportees both of our nationality as well as deportees from other nationalities," Arevalo said, speaking during a news conference with Rubio.

The agreement is similar to but less expansive than the one Rubio reached with El Slavador's president, Nayib Bukele, on Tuesday. Bukele said his country would accept U.S. deportees of any nationality, including American citizens and legal residents who are imprisoned for violent crimes.

RUBIO HEADS TO PANAMA, LATIN AMERICA TO PURSUE TRUMP'S 'GOLDEN AGE' AGENDA

"We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system," Bukele wrote on X Monday night. "We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable."

TRUMP ANNOUNCES VENEZUELA WILL TAKE CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BACK

Rubio said the Salvadoran president "has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world."

"We can send them, and he will put them in his jails," Rubio told reporters, referring to illegal immigrants behind bars in U.S. prisons. "And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents."

While Bukele did extend the offer to include violent American criminals, it is highly unlikely that part of the offer would actually happen, since it is illegal to deport U.S. citizens. A U.S. official said the Trump administration has no plans to deport American citizens, but noted that Bukele's offer was significant.

The proposal with El Salvador, known as a "safe third country" agreement, could potentially be an option for Venezuelan gang members convicted in the U.S. if Venezuela refuses to accept them, and Rubio said Bukele offered to accept detainees of any nationality.

Bukele also said he would take back all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members in the U.S. illegally, and promised to accept and incarcerate criminal illegal aliens from any country, especially those affiliated with Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Democratic candidate who will run to replace outgoing Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik in upstate New York can be heard in a resurfaced interview condemning U.S. Border Patrol for apprehending illegal immigrants and disparaging off-duty corrections officers and local American laborers he hired to work on his dairy farm. 

Blake Gendebien, the owner and president of Twin Mill Farms in Lisbon, New York, since 2002, was tapped Tuesday to run in an eventual special election in New York’s 21st Congressional District. 

The U.S. House seat will be vacated by Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but the powerful House Republican still awaits a Senate confirmation vote. With the special election timeline hanging in the balance, the 15 Democratic chairmen of NY-21 announced their unanimous support for Gendebien, championing him as "an authentic voice that will fight for sensible solutions." 

The Democrats categorized Gendebien, who also serves as vice chairman of the Agri-Mark Dairy Cooperative covering New York and New England, as a husband, father, small business owner and former school board member who "will fight to lower costs and secure our borders." Celebrating him as "an outsider to the political arena," they said Gendebien "embodies the voice and grit that distinguishes this district." 

NY DEMS WORKING TO KEEP STEFANIK'S HOUSE SEAT VACANT FOR MONTHS IN LATEST SCHEME AGAINST TRUMP: ASSEMBLYMAN

Republican state leadership, however, quickly condemned Gendebien as a "far-left Democrat," arguing that the candidate "not only supported Joe Biden’s open border policies, but also bailed out illegals from ICE."  

New York GOP Chair Ed Cox referenced the dairy farmer’s past comments made in a more than hour-long interview with a local newspaper reporter on March 13, 2013. 

According to the recorded audio reviewed by Fox News Digital, Gendebien voiced frustrations about the labor market in upstate New York. Among his comments, he claimed local correction officers "don’t have much self-worth," and described North County workers as not having "practical independence and ability to think," in contrast to his foreign farm laborers.

"Far Left Democrat Blake Gendebien even castigated hardworking North Country workers as ‘awful‘ people who ‘drank too much,'" Cox said in a statement. "This radical Far Left Democrat is a longtime major donor and groupie of leftist, gun-grabbing, Taxin’ Tedra Cobb, a supporter of Kathy Hochul, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and a public supporter of Biden’s inflation policies, which devastated NY21 families. Democrats didn’t do their homework when they selected Blake Gendebien and his catastrophic statements. Republicans will easily hold this seat in the upcoming special election, because the North Country is unquestionably Trump Country."

In the 2013 interview, Gendebien is heard explaining why he much preferred "Hispanic labor," generalizing local residents as having drinking problems and being involved in child custody disputes. 

"If it weren't for the Hispanic labor, I wouldn't be doing this," Gendebien said while describing the process for milking cows. "So there's three Hispanic employees. They would need to be replaced by probably six local people. And it's hard to find one person that does not have domestic abuse problems, alcohol problems, wage garnishments." 

"So when you hire these local guys, all of a sudden you're bombarded with social program stuff like what do you call it? I don't even – I'm not in that world, so I don't know," he went on. "So the court will call you. Is Brian showing up to work? What is Brian making? He has a child with this girl. He has a child with this girl. He has a court date. He needs to appear on this day. So you've got all of these plans and these guys have to leave for court all the time because they're in custody battles and, what's it called, child support battles. And they want you to lie and tell that you don't make this money. And it's just awful. And they show up late. They show up. They drink too much. There is just no labor force out there." 

Regarding other farm help, Gendebien said he hired a corrections officer. 

STEFANIK LOOKS BACK TO FIERY EXCHANGES WITH COLLEGE LEADERS IN SENATE CONFIRMATION HEARING: 'WATERSHED MOMENT

"You probably know that they don't have much self-worth in their jobs as corrections officers, so they'll work extra time and get maybe three, four weeks’ vacation. And in that vacation they will do things, plumbing or electrician work or something, just so that they feel some self-worth," Gendebien told the reporter. "So we gave him all hunting rights. You can hunt all 800 acres and he does the work for basically materials. But he also gets some self-worth. He gets the hunting rights, and we get a guy that we trust to do a lot of work and a good deal. He did my house, he did the barn. He did a lot of things." 

At one point, Gendebien complained that a Border Patrol agent took one of his workers, an illegal immigrant, into custody. 

"So Border Patrol is up and down this road," Gendebien relayed to the reporter, according to the audio archived by the Library of Congress. "As far as I know, these guys are illegal. I have all their paperwork, and I'm not obligated to check. Not obligated to E-Verify. So I get the same paperwork from them as I get from anyone else. And we move along. But Border Patrol will profile by skin color, crossing the road and they'll stop. And then they will interrogate and scream at the person." 

After Border Patrol confronted one farmworker and took him into custody, Gendebien said he called up the high school’s soccer coach, a 30-year Border Patrol agent, who told him that new Border Patrol agents sent to upstate New York from places like Arizona want to make more apprehensions, causing some friction within leadership at their command. 

Gendebien said the man told him, "I don't pick up farmworkers, but we get young men and women from Arizona that are gung-ho, and all they want to do is pick people up. And he said when they bring someone in, we have to support them. We can't say no because then they'll want our jobs. They want our senior jobs. So they'll quickly say, 'You are, you know, you're not supporting me with this illegal person.'" 

One Christmas Eve, Gendebien said, he bailed out an illegal immigrant for $10,000 so that he had help on the farm over the holiday. 

While talking about how his family came to live in North County, Gendebien said his father-in-law was a first-generation Cuban immigrant who was a superintendent of an apartment building in New York City, while his own parents worked in the Peace Corps in South America and got kicked out of Bolivia with other Americans "when it turned communist." His parents bought a farm in upstate in New York, where Gendebien said they felt like outsiders at the time. 

Because his family speaks Spanish, Gendebien said they have an advantage compared to other farmers who do not while training foreign workers. 

"But here I speak Spanish, Carmen speaks Spanish, mom speaks Spanish, dad speaks Spanish," Gendebien said. "So we can explain things to do. And they're very capable. Incredibly capable of incredibly practical knowledge and capable. A thing that the local kids around here don't have. They don't have a practical independence and ability to think and knowledge like these guys do. Which is too bad these other farms aren't getting that out of them, mainly because of the language barrier." 

Fox News Digital reached out to Gendebien's campaign, but they did not immediately respond.

When entrepreneur Elon Musk made headlines with his vociferous comments supporting the H-1B visa program, the ensuing debate focused on the implications of his position on immigration. 

But this debate obscured the reason America even has such a program in the first place: its homegrown students are being poorly educated in math. 

According to federal law, the H-1B program gives visas to foreigners coming to perform services "in a specialty occupation." A specialty occupation is defined as requiring "theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge," plus higher education requirements. 

US 'REPORT CARD' SHOWS STUDENTS HAVE FALLEN BEHIND IN READING, BARELY BUDGED IN MATH: ‘THE NEWS IS NOT GOOD’

The program is annually capped at 65,000 regular H-1B visas, with another 20,000 for those foreigners who have earned advanced degrees from U.S. universities. 

Given Musk’s vehement support of the program, it is no surprise that a federal report states that in 2023, "computer-related occupations were the largest major occupational area, accounting for 65% of all beneficiaries [of the program]." In comparison, less than 1% of H-1B visas were given to foreigners in the social sciences. 

While much of the coverage of the H-1B debate focuses on the foreign-versus-American-worker angle, the real issue regarding H-1Bs is that the U.S. is failing to produce domestic workers with the requisite math skills required by Musk’s SpaceX and other high-tech companies. 

In 2024, a shocking 72% of eighth-grade students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam failed to score at the proficient level -- a full 6% increase over the 66% of eighth graders failing to achieve proficiency in 2019.

Why are American students doing so badly in math? The answer lies in the ineffective math instruction they are receiving. 

In the early 2010s, most states adopted the Common Core national education standards, which were touted as a cure for America’s math woes. Unfortunately, Common Core turned out to be bad medicine. 

Common Core confused many students by emphasizing indirect ways to arrive at the right answer instead of just learning straightforward mathematical operations. 

For example, in multiplying numbers, children are often asked to draw pictures instead of simply memorizing the multiplication tables. 

Michael Malione, a professional math tutor in California, said that his students were instructed by their public schools to draw and shade different areas of rectangles when multiplying fractions, rather than simply multiplying the numerators and multiplying the denominators to get the correct answer. Requiring students to learn math this way is both inefficient and ineffective. 

"We’re going to draw a picture every time we’re given 10 problems with fractional multiplication, when you could do them in your head?" Malione asks. "That’s insane." 

Malione sees students "who are completely lost and they’re not getting the step-by-step guidance early on." 

Given Malione’s experience, it is unsurprising that a federally funded study found that Common Core had significant negative effects on the math achievement of eighth graders. 

College math professors are shocked at students’ poor math skills. 

One college math instructor in the Silicon Valley lamented that the lack of algebra knowledge is "the number one deficiency and its chronic." He said, "we’re not producing the kinds of students and graduates that Silicon Valley needs."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION 

Sugi Sorensen, a top engineer at famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory who also tutors students in math, urged a return to proven traditional math practices, which includes mastering the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through "the memorization of math facts and procedures" so that students "can perform computations quickly, accurately, and effortlessly." 

Further, math topics should be sequential, "where new concepts are built upon previously learned ones in a structured, hierarchical manner," Sorensen said. 

Finally, Sorensen recommends that math operations such as long division "should be explicitly taught and practiced until mastery," with an emphasis on accuracy. 

America has nearly 50 million K-12 students. If schools use proven math instructional methods instead of failed progressive techniques, there would be less need for H-1B visas because there would be more than enough young Americans with the skills companies need. The tech titans at Trump's inauguration should lean on schools to do just that. It is time to make math great again. 

Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. He is the author of the PRI book The Great Classroom Collapse: Teachers, Students, and Parents Expose the Collapse of Learning in America’s Schools. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM LANCE IZUMI

Chicago political leaders are encouraging local residents' efforts to defy the federal government as it attempts to carry out mass deportations in the city, vowing to "hold the line and push back every single time."

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has faced pushback from local groups aiding illegal immigrants as its agents are sweeping the city as part of a nation-wide illegal immigration crackdown, the Chicago Tribune reported. Windy City non-profits have launched Facebook groups, apps and have put up flyers across the city with instructions on how to avoid being detained by ICE. Left-wing political leaders are cheering the acts of resistance, as ICE is estimated to have detained some 100 migrants so far.

"The actions coming from the White House are rooted in xenophobic, nativist and racist lies. We must hold the line and push back every single time — as we’ve done before," Rep. Jesús "Chuy" García said at an event at Malcolm X College on Wednesday. "People are exercising their rights."

TRUMP'S BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN UNVEILS 'GAME-CHANGING' MIGRANT NUMBERS UNDER NEW ADMIN

Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan has blasted Chicago and other sanctuary cities, claiming that they are obstructing the administration’s efforts to deport criminal illegal migrants from the country.

"Sanctuary cities are making it very difficult to arrest criminals. For instance, Chicago, very well-educated, they’ve been educated (on) how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE. And I’ve seen many pamphlets from many of the (nongovernmental organizations). … They call it ‘Know Your Rights.’ I call it how to escape arrest. There’s a warrant for your arrest — they tell you how to hide from ICE," Homan said in a CNN interview.

Illinois State Rep. Delia Ramirez, however, considers those resisting Trump’s mass deportation program to be "courageous."

"We have shown them that we are courageous. We have shown them that we are organized. And we have shown them that they will not break us," she said.

CHICAGO HORROR: 2 MIGRANTS CHARGED WITH MURDER AS HOMAN LEADS ICE RAIDS

Illinois is home to 300,000 of the 11 million total illegal immigrants in the U.S. as of 2022, according to Pew Research Data. ICE claims it has made 710 immigration arrests per day from January 23 through January 27. 

Two illegal migrants were charged in the murder of a 63-year-old man whose body was found tied up at his Chicago home on Sunday, the same day that Homan led an immigration enforcement operation in the city. 

President Donald Trump's administration has reached a deal to grant the Texas National Guard new authority to make immigration arrests this weekend.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott referenced the deal on social media, saying it would "boost manpower for border security." Under the agreement, Texas National Guard troops would be able to arrest illegal immigrants so long as there is a U.S. immigration officer or Border Patrol agent present. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Abbott said the deal was "effective immediately" as of Sunday night.

The deal is only the latest front in Trump's nationwide blitz against illegal immigration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other border security groups have leaned into their deportation efforts since Trump gained office.

TRUMP FOE LETITIA JAMES SLAMMED FOR POST-NYC ICE RAID COMMENTS: ‘GET ON THE SAME PAGE’

Trump's 2024 campaign promised to curb illegal immigration that flourished under the Biden administration. The 47th President promised to deport migrants, including those who had long rap sheets or ties to gangs or terrorist organizations.

On the first day of his second term, Trump issued ten executive orders aimed at overhauling U.S. immigration law and policy. Less than a week back in the Oval Office, Trump touted that he is keeping his promises.

"Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency at our southern border. I sent active duty troops on the border to help repel the invasion. Tom Homan is leading the charge. You know that. We like Tom Homan. Doing a great job," Trump said at a recent rally.

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"We immediately halted all illegal entry and began sending every border trespasser and violator back to the places from which they came. I signed an order that will designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. It's a big deal, it's a big deal. Biden didn't want to do that," he added. "Biden didn't know he was alive. He didn't want to do it."

Federal officials deported some 7,300 illegal immigrants in the opening week of Trump's administration alone.

Fox News' Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report